Equal People Pop-Up Research//What does home mean to you?

For the last year I have been ‘pop-up testing’. Pop-up testing is where you ask 1–2 targeted questions in line with the problem you are trying to solve.

Last week 36 people gave me their answers about what home meant to them. I also asked people’s comfortability around sharing a house with someone else and the barriers to doing that.

The winners were ‘Family’, ‘Love’ and ‘Safety’ and last but not least ‘being happy’ was a common theme. My personal favourite- ‘Home is where the heart is’.

Sydney standing on Bondi beach with the sign. It reads ‘What does home mean to you?’

A screenshot from my research board shows the answers. ‘Family’ has four strokes, ‘Love’ has three strokes, ‘Safe and Happy’ has three strokes, ‘Happiness’ has two strokes, ‘Bondi’ has two strokes, ‘Dogs’ has 1 stroke,

I also attended a house viewing at a property where there were long queues to see the 1.2 million one bedroom house.

What I learnt from my day of research.

KNOWING SOMEONE’S BACK GROUND IS IMPORTANT TO PEOPLE — 8 people told me this

1. People are not monsters — if there was an apocalypse, they would share their space with someone else to help them.
2. People want to know the background of someone before they would take someone on.
3. Spending time with someone/ meeting them first would be important to take them in their house.

MEETING OTHER PEOPLE

1. Single people as well as couples are finding it hard to meet people. This was one reason for ‘moves to the inner west’. (House viewing)
2. Some neighbours are awesome — one set of neighbours in the street at the House Viewing said he had been invited to neighbourly dinner parties. (St Peter’s!)
3. Most people I spoke to mentioned the need for community.

LIVING CLOSE TO OTHERS MEANS YOU CAN LOOK OUT FOR THEM AND IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

1. People in share houses told me that living in a house share is good because you can go and do trips and activities with others, and ‘get away from your partner!’. They also said it was good for mental health as you can check on others to see if they’re okay.
2. One couple from Sri Lanka told me about the fact in Sri Lanka families live together and this is great to have company- with parents being able to talk to each other and kids play. But the downside is they can interfere!

I INTERVIEWED ONE PERSON EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS THAT DAY (BUT THE FACT IS — HE WAS PROPER HOMELESS, THIS FELT PERMANENT TO HIM> THIS WAS NOT TEMPORARY> HE WAS VERY SAD.

He was legally blind and had been homeless all his life. He said he had been knocked back from getting housing DUE to his disability.

‘They won’t put me up because they fear of the liability if they had a fall or there was an issue because of my disability.’

I INTERVIEWED ONE PERSON WITH A DISABILITY

This week I also conducted an interview with a person who is paraplegic. They were living at home with Mum and Dad and not able to get any financial assistance / NDIS due to them owning their home and having assetts themself.

Due to the ‘potential of being able to walk again’ (which was a 1–2%) this made him not eligible for NDIS.

‘Being disabled is very expensive’.

The cost of his next operation will be $700, 000 if didn’t have the private health care. The gap is $13,000 that must be paid.

This person explained the amount of abuse they get out in the streets ‘because when [he] pulls up in a disabled spot, [he] doesn’t look disabled’. This person said apart from getting his operation next week, the most important thing for him to get done, is making people aware of disability.

I am currently still analysing the in-depth interviews from this week. But closing thoughts are — If home is happiness — doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy and safe?